FCC, want to take my phone more than the #

I'll leave this one for someone else to comment;

but I will say, in my opinion fwiw, it should not be illegal. You take the good with the bad and hope to get a little fairness.

It is not illegal to unlock a phone. You can buy an unlocked phone direct from a manufacturer or on e-bay and then you can sign with any GSM provider.

Dear hh, thanks for the news. Should the vendor reps be reported for unfair business pactices. If it is not illegal, they are cheating/misleading a lot of people. Your answer sounds totally logical, but I keep running into the same "Oh, you can't do that. You must buy a new phone." Some will "give" you a "new" phone with a 2 year contract, but I need a phone card plan.

Is it possible that after you sign up with a vendor, bringing your eBay phone, and they load their software, you are then unable to use the phone with someone else. Can the old software be wiped and the new vendor's loaded -- it should, it is just a computer. (With my luck the costs associated with this idea, it would be cheaper to buy their phone. I just don't want to toss something else in a landfill when there is a better way. Where are the "greens" in this?)

Will a vendor ALLOW the use of a phone previously programed to a different plan?

Thanks again for answering.

I recently sold my used Verizon phone on e-Bay. The buyer called verizon and activated it with no problem.
The CDMA and TDMA phones cannot be 'unlocked'. I am not sure how it works but TDMA is out anyway (offered by ATT and Cingular) who are switching to GSM. CDMA is used by Verizon and Sprint (and some others). Here again I am not sure if those phones can be interchangeable.
On the other hand, GSM phones can be unlocked. You have to make sure you have an UNLOCKED quad-band phone (850/900/1800/1900) or at least a tri-band (850/1800/1900) to be able to use on various GSM services in USA (Cingular/ATT, T-Mobile) and abroad.
All you do is buy a SIM card from the provider, you can buy one that is pay-as-you-go or even get one of their plans (you may have to sign a one year plan). After the year is up, you can continue the plan without having to re-sign, and you can even buy a new phone from a vendor or e-Bay, and just switch the SIM card from the old phone to the new phone.
I think most people who work as reps. in stores have no idea, also it is to their benefit to sell you a plan as they have you locked in.

hh, thanks for the info. I think mine is a GSM. Anyway when I accidently go to the service box to check for messages, it starts trying to make a GSM link. Can't find the paperwork at the moment but I do know it is an inexpensive (by current costs) Nokia. It keeps coming up with a message no SIM card, not sure why I would need one for with our limited use.

Again thanks.

I agree that the option of taking your phone number is not as crucial as the option of taking your phone. The carriers are barely affected by the option of taking your number with you. Moreover, some carriers are charging you if you want to take your number away from them. Having the same number is a convenience (the consumer does not directly save money by being able to preserve their number).

The money factor comes into play when the only way you can get a decent price on a phone is to committ to a contract. You can break the contract, and keep your number but the carrier rakes it in. Let's say someone meets the terms of the contract and is finally free to choose any carrier. If he chooses another carrier he's still going to have to committ to another contract if he wants to get a decent price on a phone (since the new carrier won't allow you to use the phone from the previous carrier). Keeping your old number is a nice little convenience, but that's all it is. The option to keep your number has been foisted on the public as some kind of liberating advancement for the consumer, when it doesn't do anything to directly address this cycle of consumption masterfully engineered by the wireless providers.

The ability to take your phone with you, on the other hand, can do something to slow down the cycle. GSM networks can give the consumer the option of using a protocol compatible phone across all GSM networks, which means that you no longer have to buy the subsidized phones that force you into a contract in the first place. All you need is a carrier-specific SIM card, and an unlocked GSM phone. One guy gave the argument that this would somehow increase theft and crime. I see his point but I don't agree. If a phone is stolen the only potentially valuable piece of hardware is the SIM. The SIM can be interchanged into other GSM compatible phones, but the SIM itself is carrier specific. A cingular SIM cannot turn into a t-mobile SIM, maybe theoretically, but as if a thief is gonna figure out how to do that in his basement? Unlikely, that is like hacking into the DMV. The other choice then is for the thief to use the already programmed SIM from the stolen phone. Then he could place the SIM into any unlocked phone to make calls as if he were the original customer. But this is precisely why you report stolen phones, so that someone is not using your identity. (The SIM has a user-specific number assigned to it, just like an ESN that identifies a phone with your number...changes to the SIM are made over the air regardless of whether it's the original phone) That said, I'm not saying we should all hoard our money to stop the cycle of consumption. Not at all, my problem is that the money being poured into wireless companies are not honest profits, and having the option to use unlocked phones can help to solve this problem.

yes u are totally righ but only with phone with sim cards. i aggree on that but not with cdma phones which dont use sim cards. u can buy any phone that use gsm and unlock the phone and pop in ur sim card and bingo but this only work swith gsm also with nextel technology. this is old news this always being like this since day one, but you can not expect technical support from ur carrier unless the sim card u have from a specific model is pop inside to a phone same brand. example the nextel phone u can change sim card any of their phone and always works. but lets say u take a sim card from a gsm like cingular samsung phone then u buy on ebay a diff brand phone u can unlock the phone drop in the sim card and it will work but the phone will not work 100%, make calls or receive all that standard stuff yes but some options on the phone may not work because the sim card belong to a diff brand name phone. if this was the case on the cdma network it would b very bad idea and yes ppl will steal cell phones like drinking water why, because nextel is one company that hardly any of us would use for personal stuff, usually company use nextel so the chances it of someone take a nextel are little compare to a cell phone from verizon or sprintpcs which are wayyyy more advance and expensive. imagine if verizon and sprintpcs had sim card do u know how hungry and easy would be to steal phone knowing the fact that all u got to do is take the sim card out of ur cdma phone if they had any and just drop in ur own sim card. then it would b useless to report a stolen phone other than to protect the data n ur sim card which the thieve most likely tost n the trash and install his own and bingo he got a $400 or $800 phone for free. once u report a cdma "verizon or sprintpcs" cell phone it can not be connected n this country so the thieve gets nothing. in nextel the thieve gets a free phone because the real thing on the phone is the sim card. of course the advantage of sim card is u can buy any phone on ebay that use sim card which 90% of the time is a stolen phone without sim card and the company has no way of tracking that phone and protect against someone connecting that phone since the sim card is the trick. i say keep it the way it is or better one reason this month my wife cell phone was stolen so she call verizon and report it now the thieve can not connect the phone or do anything with it which is great i hate to see my phone go and someone connect my phone they stole from me. if u really wanna keep ur phone when u switch carrier the first thing is to do research on the phone and u have to know things a typical user wont know. there is a few phones u can hack and make it work from sprintpcs to verizon since they use the same type of network, is not that simple to do it because u can lose the phone totally if u type the wrong command etc... i am not going to explain that but i done it and it works. remember cell phones are just a stupid luxury if u cant afford it dont get one because u dont need one is simple, i hate to see so damn ppl with cell phone when they get home they have nothing to talk about cause they already did over the phone lol and i hate to see a 14yr girl or kid with a cell phone how stupid is that unless is a prepaid cell phone that a kid use for emergency, whatever happen to beeper $50 a yr and use a public phone. one thing for sure everything is posible u just have to try hard and play with things

strykernyc, thanks for the response but I'm just not knowledgeable in all you wrote, I'll keeping asking.

I will agree that kids (and adults) and phones need some limits, but we know that is not going to happen. Schools tried to ban their use in classrooms and got knocked down. A classroom distraction should be an automatic reason to ban anytime use. Since the camera phones arrived, ethics regarding cheating seem to have disappeared, but that's another topic.

wkreply, thank you for your response. I would add that the ability to keep the same number is needed by those who put it on business cards, etc. Why anyone would give out the number in volume on a system that makes you pay for both sides of the call is beyond me. That's like paying for the paper on a fax from an advertiser. (Thank goodness we can now get the fax on the computer and save or delete at will.

what you do not realize is that (us) vendors make more money if you bring your own phone. Everytime we give you a free phone or a phone for a discounted price we loose money, but make up for it on the plan i.e. if you bring your own phone we don't loose any more money and still make on the plan.

dont listen to the other guys, you can do whatever you like, unlocked or locked, no one is going to "steal your phone."

I travel a lot all over the world. Sometimes it is better to use a local cell sevice provider overseas because of international roam costs. My "main" service provider is att. I have v600 which is unlocked and was perchased overseas. All I have to do is pop a sim card (gsm service) and i'm ready to make calls. I have about 5 of these cards by now.

After I purchased my phone and came back to US, I went right to the local att store and they gave me a new sim card and tested my unlocked phone. No problem. Same thing with my wife's siemens SL55 - service provider - cingular. No hard time at all.

It is easy to unlock the phone. It costs about 15 US dollars overseas. They can do it right in front of you and it takes about 5 minutes.

If a phone gets stolen, so what. Get a new one. It is easy to call your provider and get a new sim card or go right to the store and do that. But I will never support the competition and race between service providers in this country. Every service provider offers their own phones, well, where I live, which is a rural area, there is only one provider with good service - att. But up untill now att did not offer "good" phones.

Anyway, the way i see it, if something happends to att and i have to switch providers, I should be able to use the phone that i already have, which has all my contacts and was customised for me by me.

Alex